48 THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY AND RIVERSIDE. 



Location and Acreage. San Bernardino county, California, is entirely 

 an inland county, sheltered by low and high hills from the ocean. 

 Fogs and dew are rare, in places unknown, and the county offers 

 unusual advantages for raisin-growing. The vineyards are widely 

 distributed through the county in different localities or raisin centers, 

 all of which are greatly similar as to climatic conditions, except as 

 regards altitude. The San Bernardino vineyards are the highest 

 elevated above the sea of any in California. Below will be found a list 

 of the raisin centers in the county, with the number of acres and their 

 altitude above the sea. It must be understood that each locality has a 

 large extension as regards altitude, and varies in many instances several 

 hundred feet; this fact being indeed a characteristic of the San Bernar- 

 dino county vineyards. The raisin centers in San Bernardino county 

 are: 



Riverside, 1,500 acres. Altitude above sea, 900 to i,ooofeet. 



Redlands, 800 " " " " 1,200 " i, 600 feet. 



Highlands, 400 " " " " 1,500 feet. 



Ontario, 500 983 " 2,350 feet. 



Cucamonga, " " " 900 " 1,500 feet. 



Etlwanda, 700 " " t 1,200 feet. 



There are several other localities where raisin vineyards are found in 

 smaller quantities, and it is safe to estimate the number of acres in the 

 county at over five thousand. Nearly all these vineyards are situated 

 on mesa lands, by which is meant the lands situated between the river 

 bottoms and the foothills. As a consequence, the surface water is never 

 near the top, but generally far down, and even continued irrigation would 

 not be liable to raise it much higher, as the water will as rapidly drain 

 off through the substrata, which generally consists of sandy soil and 

 gravel. The land is in fact well drained, and differs in this respect from 

 the plains of the San Joaquin valley. In Riverside, the surface water 

 is from thirty to fifty feet down, and only in one or two vineyards 

 situated deep down in the arroyo is the surface water as shallow as ten 

 feet. These latter vineyards are never irrigated. In Redlands the 

 surface water is at an average of thirty feet on the mesa lands. In 

 Ontario the surface water is even deeper, and found at from seventy to 

 eight hundred feet, and the shallowest water in the district is, according 

 to Mr. W. E. Collins, twenty-five feet below the surface. It is the 

 general belief in the San Bernardino district that deep water is nec- 

 essary for, or at least beneficial to, raisin grapes, and that shallow 

 surface water is conducive to all kinds of diseases. In this I cannot 

 agree, as contrary to my own experiences and to the experiences of 

 the Spanish growers. , 



Climate. As regards temperature, the*re is some difference in the 

 various districts. A true comparison between them and other districts 

 is almost impossible, as the signal service thermometers are placed at 

 unequal heights above the ground, and in localities with very different 

 characteristics. It can, however, be said that the winter climate of 

 the district is much milder during the winter than that of the plains of 

 the San Joaquin valley, and very similar to the Orange county and 



